Colorado put the hardest dynasty of the modern NHL at home on the mare that the current Tampa hull has never had. Indeed, a short final series may be on hand, writes Tommi Seppälä, the NHL journalist for Urheilun.
DENVER. I don’t remember a match from the NHL finals for a long time, as evidenced by the Finnish time in Denver early Sunday. In a clash between the two giants, the home team of Colorado put reigning double champion Tampa in a washing machine like never before.
And it wasn’t just about large readings (7-0).
Colorado rolled over Tampa in a playful manner that struck the following with a daze. Avalanche slipped through Tampa’s central trap by throwing and created constant pressure on the visitors’ defense equipment in the attack area, under which Tampa once again ran out of oxygen. Continuous disc loss led to goal scores, freezes and hits.
Colorado continued this pressure in an incredible way for an entire hour.
The spirit of the game was the same already in the opening match, but now Colorado, who has shed his card, was playing at a whole new speed. Mikko Rantanen indeed, he told the undersigned after the match how in the opening match, after an eight-day break, he was a little more stuffy, but now his legs are clearly working better.
Tampa’s legs, on the other hand, didn’t work at all.
The fact that Lightning’s star defenders, from Victor Hedmanista mixed Ryan McDonaghista, are in constant trouble not only with movement but also with opening play, is a huge concern for coaching management. Colorado’s intent has been to drive Tampa’s top defenders to the acid, and it has indeed succeeded.
So far, there has been a difference in light years in the opening game of the two teams.
You can see the match summary in the video below.
Denver is played 1,600 meters above sea level, which at the beginning of the series seemed to have worked comfortably for the benefit of Colorado, which continues to run a high-altitude camp. Many NHL players have talked about the difficulty of playing in Denver and the fact that the latter is a worse match for consecutive days. Supplemental oxygen has also been used by away teams in different sports in Colorado.
Tampa would indeed have needed extra oxygen.
Colorado is oxidizing the greatest team of our time at an unimaginable rate of collective play. More significant than the 2-0 lead in the final series is Avalanche’s gaming superiority in the series in all three areas of the game.
Tampa also failed on the character side, which is very atypical for it. I don’t support hockey violence, but Tampa failed miserably in that it didn’t really start any resistance at any point. It succumbed to an ugly defeat, not the head coach Jon Cooper been pleased with this choice.
The right question is, would Colorado already scratch a piece of Tampa’s soul on Sunday? Is the team that has played well from year to year still have enough mental capacity and petrol in the tank?
At the individual level, Tampa also needs a much bigger push from its key players in Tuesday’s triple play. The aforementioned star defenders seem tired and not lead attackers Steven Stamkosin, Nikita Kutsherov and Brayden Point leadership has not achieved anything at all.
Meanwhile, Colorado has made a series of eleven hits virtually without its best strikers. Sure, these have entry points, but Nathan MacKinnonin, Gabriel Landeskogin and Rantanen’s combined goal balance from the finals shows one hit. Here again, the difference between the troops has been huge.
And then from Rantan.
The Turku striker has become the best striker in the final series so far. Rantanen does a lot of real things in the trough, even the smallest details, with high quality and bakes even hard powers on it. Five first passes in two games is a staggering accomplishment. Rantanen is the most powerful player in the finals.
And there has been little talk of this in Denver either.
Colorado is a team with several superstars, so Rantanen still flies – incredibly – somehow under the radar. It’s hard to see how a 94 regular season point player can do that. Especially when Rantanen has been profile as a tough player for some time.
The TPS breeder has baked 70 points in 53 matches in the last four springs. Rantanen’s Score Average for these years is an incredibly hard 1.32, the fourth highest in the entire NHL.
Rantanen is known in Denver by the nickname “Moose”, in Finnish “Moose” and the common saying in the city is “Moose is Loose”.
The deer is really loose. There is a deer danger in Tampa next week.